Coal news and updates

Coal stocks at power plants cross 15 mt level

January 28: With the increase in domestic coal production and improvement in despatches, coal stocks at 100 thermal power plants (TPS) across India crossed the 15 million tons (mt) level and reached 15.934 mt as on January 26, 2015, according to data released by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

Coal stocks at the 100 TPS on December 26 went up from 15.199 mt recorded on January 19, 2014 whereas on January 12, coal stocks at the power plants stood even lower at 14.749 mt. On the other hand, on January 7, it stood at 14.252 mt and on January 1 at 13.977 mt, data showed.

This shows, there has been a steady increase of coal stock at the power plants on a week on week basis during the month of January.

However, in terms of days, there were coal stocks for 11 days both on January 26 and January 19. It stood at 10 days on January 12 and January 7 as well as at 9 on January 1.

Stocks of imported and domestic coals stood at 2.062 mt and 13.873 mt, respectively on January 26 while imported and domestic coal stocks stood at 2.120 mt and 13.078 mt, respectively on January 19.

On the other hand, stocks of imported and domestic coals stood at 1.908 mt and 12.842 mt, respectively on January 12 while on January 7, the figures stood at 1.907 mt and 12.345 mt, respectively.

On January 1, 2014, imported and domestic coal stock stood at 1.925 mt and 12.052 mt, respectively.

The change in the overall coal stocks situation also affected the number of plants facing a critical coal stocks situation of less than four days, the CEA data revealed.

The number of plants facing critical coal stocks position of less than seven days stood at 29 on January 26, at 28 on January 19 and at 32 on January 12, as per data made available by CEA.

On the other hand, the figures were at 35 days on January 7 and at 42 days on January 1, respectively.

The number of plants facing a super-critical coal stocks scenario of less than four days stood at 12 on January 26 as well as on January 19. However, it stood at 17 on January 12, 18 on January 7 and 20 on January 1.